BiographyJean-Pierre Dardenne was born in Engis, Belgium in April 1951. Luc Dardenne was born in Awirs, Belgium in March 1954. In 1975, they founded the production company Derives which has since produced some sixty documentaries, including their own. They first came to international attention in the mid-1990s with The Promise. They won their first major international film prize when Rosetta won the Palme d’Or at the 1999 Cannes IFF. All their films since have played at the Cannes main competition and won one of the major prizes. In 1994, they founded the production company "Les Films du Fleuve".

Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne

The Promise / Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne

Roger is a corrupt businessman who smuggles illegal immigrants into Antwerp and protects them from the law in exchange for work. However, Roger pays meager wages for back-breaking labor and charges immigrants appallingly high rent for substandard housing. Roger has a 15-year-old son, Igor, who has learned from his father to steal and twist the truth; Igor is loyal to Roger, despite his father’s frequent violence against him. One day, Amidou, one of the illegals working for Roger, falls from scaffolding at a construction site; as he is dying, Amidou begs Igor to watch over his wife Assita and their child.While Roger and his partners try to keep the death a secret to avoid police interference, Igor constructs an elaborate web of lies to ease the concerns of Assita, who does not know that her husband has died. Before long, Igor’s loyalties are torn between his concern for his father’s safety and his guilty affection for Assita.